


Waiting For Your Call

by willneverbeordinary



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Infidelity, M/M, Songfic, fall themed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 02:48:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/willneverbeordinary/pseuds/willneverbeordinary
Summary: Rhett has loved Link his whole life and they have been as close as two best friends can get. The problem is that they got closer than that and despite the fact that it keeps breaking Rhett's heart, he just can't walk away.





	Waiting For Your Call

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the song "Waiting For Your Call", especially the part quoted below.
> 
> "When you reach the other side of this life you live  
> And you ask yourself what good you did  
> When you wanna know just how much I can forgive  
> I’ll be waiting for your call
> 
> When the charms and riches do not seem to last  
> When your lover asked for proof is not up to the task  
> I’m surprised you think you even need to ask  
> I’ll be waiting for your call
> 
> May I never give in and accept the fact  
> If I can’t feel your presence let me feel the lack  
> ‘Cause even if you never will be coming back  
> I’ll be waiting for your call"

Two boys and a piece of paper. A promise to do great things together. Rhett put his hand on Link’s back as Link, a bit unsteady on his feet, signed the paper with his own blood. Red smearing against white and the smile Link gives Rhett is a blooming glow in Rhett’s chest. He smiles too. He smiles and he keeps his hand on his best friend's back as he seals their oath.

Two boys. Just the two of them.

Like trees growing close enough grow together with time, like stars of the same constellation, they remain by each other's side.

* * *

 In their office, in Burbank California, rural North Carolina seems far away. Yet it’s close by in Rhett’s head as he watches his friend work in their shared office. Rhett’s memories are lingering on touches, on the jolts of electricity and the fast beat of his heart when they we're that close to one another. College boys wrestling in their dorm room, stripped down to their underwear, skin on skin, and the memory carries all the heat that had burned through his veins. Pressing Link down against the floor to get close enough, to try and feed that hollow ache that screamed for closer closer closer, all under the guise of roughhousing.

He watches Link work and he sees the ring on his finger. Wedding band that ties him not to Rhett but to someone else. It still stings the same as the first time Rhett saw it.

Link is frowning at the screen of his laptop. He takes a sip of coffee. And Rhett looks at his slender fingers, his blue eyes and his pink lips. He lets his gaze travel over the lines on Link’s face, the silver in his hair. Sees all the years and years and years that has passed. Sees the same beauty he’s seen all his life. Rhett gets up from his office chair. He walks over, sits down. His fingers card through Link’s hair and Link turns towards him. He gives Rhett a soft smile and the glow in Rhett’s chest pulsates. Then he takes Rhett’s hand, soft touch, and with eyes blue with an ocean of regret, he places Rhett’s hand in Rhett’s own lap.

“Let’s not go down that road again,” Link says and Rhett gives a nod.

He gets up, takes his laptop, and walks out of the office. His heart dims inside his chest. A cold sweeps in and squeezes it. 

* * *

In the middle of the night, after another day just like any ordinary day, the phone rings. Rhett rolls out of the bed where his wife is still sleeping, warm, soft, and tiptoes into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. His breaths are already ragged. Torn and shredded like cold autumn winds the way they would sweep across his home state all those years ago. Link’s voice fills the silence and it, too, is as clawing and desperate as a storm. Filled with rain, filled with dark clouds. Filled with the need for warmth and a safe haven, away from the wicked weather.

“I need to see you,” Link tells him.

And Rhett, Rhett hears himself say ‘yes’, say that Link doesn’t even need to ask. That he knows. He knows and he’ll be there. Even if it’s a temporary lapse in judgment for both of them. Even if inevitably colliding, all desperation and need and a love that just won’t burn out no matter how much rain that falls, has gone from exited spring, warm soft summer to a hollow, cold and haunted fall. Rhett still says yes every time. In spite of the nip of winter and the inevitable end.

Even if he will never have Link like he did when it was just the two of them. Even if, even if, even if. The answer will always be ‘yes’.


End file.
